DV Journal

Bucks County gave $13,500 in opioid settlement funds to Planned Parenthood Keystone for its Rainbow Room, which bills itself as a club for LGBTQ teenagers. The money is being used to provide transportation for kids attending the Rainbow Room’s new program in Lower Bucks County.

The rides are for students at Pennsbury, Truman, and Neshaminy high schools. Parents must sign a consent form. The new location is in Langhorne, while the Rainbow Room has its main headquarters at a church in Doylestown.

According to its website, the Rainbow Room programs are “free and open to anyone ages 14 to 21. Plus, we just brought a new group into our program. Roy G. Biv in Doylestown is for kids ages 10 to 14.”

Previously, state Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D-Bucks) obtained $630,000 in state funds to add a second Rainbow Room location in Lower Bucks. Those tax dollars were originally given to Pennsylvania as part of federal COVID-19 funding.

Santarsiero said his youngest son had participated in Rainbow Room programs. The Rainbow Room made headlines when it held a queer prom where gift bags with condoms, dental dams, and lubrication were handed out to participants ages 14 to 21.

The new grant application for opioid settlement funds was obtained by the DVJournal.

“The project involves expanding outreach to LGBTQ+ youth and friends in Lower Bucks to connect with education, behavioral health, and empowerment programming offered at the Lower Bucks Rainbow Room in Langhorne, PA,” the grant application reads.

“As awareness about the services and transportation have been identified as two primary barriers to youth engagement with the programs, we hope to hire a qualified bus driver to pick up students from two high schools in the area and transport them to and from the Lower Bucks Rainbow Room on Tuesday evenings. The bus will depart from each school after dismissal and return the students home after the program concludes at 8:00 p.m. Drop-In Hours with food, homework help and a positive peer environment will also be offered on Tuesdays before the 6 p.m. program starts.”

The application also claims studies show “disproportionate misuse of opioids amongst LGBTQ+ youth. One such study demonstrates that “Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other LGBTQ populations (LGBTQ+; e.g., asexual individuals) have higher rates of substance use (SU) and disorders (SUD) compared to heterosexual and cisgender populations. Such disparities can be attributed to minority stress, including stigma and discrimination in healthcare settings. LGBTQ+-affirming SU treatment and related services remain limited.”

“Another important study showed that ‘28.5 percent of gay/lesbian and 25.1 percent of bisexual youth reported misuse compared to 12.5 percent of heterosexual youth. Nearly one in ten gay/lesbian youth reported a history of heroin use compared to 4.1 percent of bisexual and 1.1 percent of heterosexual young people,” the grant application said.

Some local residents don’t believe this is the best use for the opioid funds.

Alix Paul of Langhorne said, “Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was a former heroin addict and is a long-time AA meeting goer, promoted healing farms for substance abuse recovery during his 2024 presidential campaign. It would be great if something like this could come to Bucks County, possibly from opioid settlement funds, to provide a holistic approach for substance abuse recovery and prevention for the entire community and not just catered towards one subset of people.”

“I am confused and concerned why Commissioners Bob Harvie and Diane Marseglia would use taxpayer dollars to fund rides for minors to go a Planned Parenthood-sponsored activity when there are so many other types of activities offered to children throughout the county,” said Chalfont mother Jamie Walker. “I think they are using children’s needs as political favors to gain endorsements for Democratic candidates, including Bob Harvie’s upcoming congressional run.”

Bucks County is holding a community forum on the opioid settlement grants on April 8 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Administration Building in Doylestown. A virtual forum will be held later.

Bucks County will receive about $70 million over 18 years from the settlement, which is supposed to be used to remediate the opioid epidemic.

The invitation said “Open to all,” but a reporter for Delaware Valley Journal was thrown out of a Planned Parenthood event at its LGBT-oriented Rainbow Room venue Wednesday before the event began.

DVJournal News Editor Linda Stein was seated in the audience of the “Know Your Rights In Schools” event when one of the organizers approached her and told her to leave.

The woman, who did not identify herself, told Stein the event was for “only LGBTQ supporters and immigrant rights supporters. You are not.”

When Stein pointed out that the invitation said everyone is welcome, the woman responded, “Everyone who is aligned with what we’re doing here is welcome. You are going to have to leave.”

Rather than disrupt the event, Stein left.

Rainbow Room Executive Director Marlene Pray did not respond to an email asking for comment on the decision to remove a journalist from the event. There was no response to a voicemail message left with the Rainbow Room, either.

Event attendees were asked to show their drivers licenses and fill out a form asking for personal information including street address, email address and phone number before entering. The form also asked attendees to declare their support for immigrant and LGBTQ rights.

Stein filled out the form and showed her ID as requested.

The Rainbow Room is part of Planned Parent Keystone’s programming for LGBT youth. According to its website, the LGBTQ+ programs are “free and open to anyone ages 14 to 21. Plus, we just brought a new group into our program. Roy G. Biv in Doylestown is for kids ages 10 to 14.

“Our weekly meetings are a safe space where you can feel empowered and know that you’re getting accurate information about relationships, sex, and more.”

In 2022, the Rainbow Room made headlines by hosting a “Queer Prom” that included a drag queen. Gift bags for prom attendees, some reportedly as young as 13, included lubricant, condoms, and dental dams.

In 2022, the Rainbow Room received $630,000 in state funding through the auspices of state Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D-Bucks).  The funding for that grant came from the federal American Rescue Plan, a COVID-19 relief program, according to The Daily Caller.

In January, a second Rainbow Room opened in Lower Bucks County, offering free rides to students from Pennsbury, Truman, and Neshaminy High Schools.

According to its Form 990 filed with the IRS, Planned Parenthood Keystone reported an income of $15.5 million for 2023.

Despite the taxpayer funding, attorney Melissa Melewsky with the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association said Planned Parenthood Keystone had the legal right to remove a reporter from its event. Private organizations “can include or exclude parties from meetings at their discretion. The Sunshine Act does not generally apply to private nonprofit organizations, and thus does not mandate public meetings,” Melewsky said.

Stein was not the only person denied access to the event.

Alix Paul, a Langhorne mother who had reposted the Rainbow Room’s Facebook announcement for the meeting on her community’s online page, was met at the door and refused entry. She said organizers knew her name and told her they were denying her entry over concerns about safety.

“Basically, they’re saying that it’s open to the public, but then they’re saying no, only if you agree with us,” said Paul. “If you have nothing to hide, why are you scared of the opposition? If you’re  not doing anything wrong, why do you care if we’re there?”

Planned Parenthood Keystone apparently anticipated removing people from their “public” event.

While its original Facebook post said, “Open to all,” a later post added, “No haters allowed.”

Chris Elston, a Vancouver father known as “Billboard Chris,” and a dozen local supporters protested outside the Rainbow Room in Doylestown Wednesday.

The Rainbow Room, which receives taxpayer funding as well as support from Planned Parenthood, is a controversial organization claiming to serve LGBTQ+ youth ages 14 to 21. State Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D-Bucks) secured $630,000 in state funding for the Rainbow Room, which held a queer prom where gift bags with condoms, dental dams, and lubrication were handed out.

About 150 counterprotesters with colorful rainbow flags, attire, and signs, blared loud music to drown out Elston’s message.

Elston, who has two daughters, told DVJournal he quit his job to try to save his children from the transgender ideology that has taken hold in North America. He travels to protest and inform people that hormone blockers and surgery on minor children should not be permitted.

Elston tried to talk to the counterprotesters, telling them medical authorities in England and the Scandinavian countries have backed off allowing transgender surgery and hormone therapy on children “after finding there was no evidence to support transitioning children.”

He was told to “step off our private property” of Salem Church, which hosts the Rainbow Club. “Why do you think it’s okay to sterilize kids?” he countered.

“I’ve been traveling since September 2020, having conversations on the street,” said Elston. “I’ve probably spent 2,500 hours outside having conversations tens of thousands of times about what I consider to be the greatest child abuse scandal in history.”

He said that “300,000 kids in the United States have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria,” he said. “And they don’t even have real gender dysphoria. They’re just struggling. A lot of the kids have autism. About half of them are on the autism spectrum.” A survey of 1,000 kids in England with gender dysphoria showed 35 percent had autism. “But it’s kids who’ve suffered abuse or trauma. Sexual abuse is very common; kids in foster care are way overrepresented.”

“It’s all these kids who are struggling and self-loathing,” he said. “And now they’re being told, ‘It’s because you were born in the wrong body, which is an extraordinarily beastly thing to tell a child, that they were ‘born wrong’ and need to be the opposite sex. It’s insane. And they’re being given this chemical regimen of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries. And what are we doing, stopping the development of children?

“Historically, kids with gender dysphoria were a handful of the population. More than 80 percent just grew out of it. Puberty itself was the cure,” he said. “Now we’ve blocked the cure. And the majority of these kids, when it affected a handful, just grew up to be gay.” So, the transgender movement “is the most homophobic in the history of the world, in addition to all the other wrongs it’s doing,” he said.

Elston, asked why he was doing this, said, “I’m a dad. I have two girls. I started learning about this in 2019. I saw this term’ puberty blockers’ and said, ‘What the heck are those?’”

“As a dad of two girls, 8 and 10 at that time, I wanted to learn about this. I see it as a cult that’s permeated all of society, being pushed at the highest levels. It’s being pushed by governments, NGOs, TQ nonprofits, the World Health Organization, the U.N. And it’s all based on a lie…And I know we’re harming kids.”

“I’m not going to send my girls into a world that doesn’t know what a woman is,” he said. “A world that is trying to sex change children. We’ve got to put a stop to this.”

“I wasn’t going to say, ‘I knew all about this child abuse and wasn’t going to do anything about it,’” said Elston. “Freedom of speech is a large part of this. Everyone was so afraid to talk about this. Everyone has been cowed into silence. People have been fired from their jobs. People try to cancel them.”

Elston said he has been beaten, suffered a broken arm, and been arrested while protesting with his billboard in various places.

Plumsteadville resident Jona Franklin came to support Elston.

“It’s my community,” Franklin said. “I would like (children’s) innocence protected, and I don’t know that anything that is hyper-sexualizing children is healthy or safe. I don’t believe that children should ever make lifelong impacting decisions. And their parents’ rights should be protected.”

A Lower Merion mother who did not want her name used was carrying a sign saying, “Gender ideology does not belong in schools.” She took her own kids out of the Lower Merion School District.

“I feel strongly the kids are being taken advantage of, pushed really early, introducing it in first grade…Kids are disciplined and corrected as young as first grade if they ‘misgender’ their first-grade classmates.”

Philadelphian Yaakov Strasberg also came to the protest.

“I don’t think kids should have genital mutilation or hormone blockers that mess up their bodies,” he said. He noted that someone cannot drive until they are 16, buy alcohol until they are 21, or vote until they are 18. Taking hormones or having surgery is “something that affects your whole life.” However, it would be fine if they want to do that when they are adults, but “kids are easily influenced.”

“Morally and religiously, I’m against it,” said Strasberg.

Adam Gilbert-Cole, a member of Salem Church, said he volunteers to provide security for the Rainbow Room.

“We are here to support the teens of the Rainbow Room,” said Gilbert-Cole. Asked about children changing their gender, he said, “I’m in favor of teens having a conversation with their parents and their doctors because that is their right.”

When asked about school districts keeping a child’s wish to become the opposite sex a secret from their parents, he said he did not believe that happens. When DVJournal told him there is evidence that some districts do that, and it has been reported, Gilbert-Cole declined to speak further.

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The Rainbow Room, a Doylestown club for LGBTQ+ youth from 14 to 21 years old, is in the headlines after state Sen. Doug Mastriano issued a sponsoring memo for legislation to stop drag queen shows on public property or where minors can see them.

The Rainbow Room recently held a Queer Prom that included a drag queen. Gift bags for prom attendees, some reportedly as young as 13, included lubricant, condoms, and dental dams.

Mastriano, the 2022 GOP nominee for governor, said, “In Pennsylvania, there has been an alarming uptick in drag performances that appeal to children. In April 2022, parents at a school district in Lancaster were shocked to learn about afterschool X-rated drag shows occurring on school property. In October 2022, a sexually charged drag show for audience members as young as 13 was performed at the Rainbow Room in Bucks County.

“My legislation will classify drag shows as an ‘adult-oriented business’ under Title 68. As an adult-oriented business, commonsense limits would have to be considered that protect minors.

“It is disheartening that legislation like this is needed. Parents have a right to know their children are not being exposed to sexually charged content in a public forum. Drag shows that appeal to minors on school property, libraries, and other public places should not be accepted in any functioning society,” Mastriano said.

Many Delaware Valley libraries have sponsored drag queen story hours. Although a drag-related festival sparked controversy in West Chester last year, that was largely due to an incorrect article in an area newspaper.

Marlene Pray, the Rainbow Room director, did not respond to a request for comment. Photos shared with Delaware Valley Journal show very young teens there playing with sex toys and an invitation to a pizza party decorated with drawings of female genitalia. Another invitation offered instruction on how to crochet a hat shaped like a uterus.

Bucks County parent Jamie Walker said, “It’s deeply disturbing that we live in a county where people are celebrating 13 to 21-year-olds at a party where lube and dental dams were handed out.”

“Nobody knows the Rainbow Room’s process for vetting their staff and volunteers,” she added. “Why is our state senator endorsing this? The LGBTQ community should be upset they are being used this way.”

Mastriano locked horns with Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D-Bucks), who secured $630,000 in state funding for the Rainbow Room last fall and is also a sponsor of the Queer Prom.

Santarsiero, who also chairs the Bucks County Democratic Committee, defended the Rainbow Room and the Queer Prom.

“While I disagree with (Mastriano’s) proposal as a matter of policy, I take particular exception to his distorted characterization of the Rainbow Room’s Queer Prom, a dance specifically arranged for LGBTQ+ youth in Bucks County.

“The Rainbow Room, which Planned Parenthood established over 20 years ago to be a safe place for LGBTQ+ youth to come together and build self-esteem, first held the prom in February 2020.

“I was at that event, both as an elected official sponsoring it and as a parent (our younger son had come out as gay about eight months before and was excited to attend the prom with his friends). Due to the pandemic, the Rainbow Room had to cancel the prom in 2021 but was able to hold it again this past fall. While family weekend at our younger son’s college prevented me from attending that prom, I once again agreed to sponsor the dance. Its organizers sent me a video of it later,” said Santarsiero.

“What I observed in person in 2020 – and again by watching the video of the 2022 prom – was a large group of teenagers having fun. What struck me, in fact, was that they could have been kids – gay or straight – at any school in the country. For the most part, they danced with the same awkwardness as any other teenager – I say that endearingly as someone who, even in late middle age, is still awkward on the dance floor. What was apparent was that each one of them was happy. They were happy to be with their friends and happy to be in a loving environment where it was OK to be themselves.

“It is an important point. Many of these students do not feel accepted by their peers,” he said.

Santarsiero added, “As for it being sexually charged, I will not attempt to get into the gentleman’s mind to decipher what exactly he meant by that phrase, although I note that it is one that is most often used by those, who, solely on their own authority, take on the mantel of arbiter of morality in ironic disregard of the biblical admonition against judging.”

The Bucks County Republican Committee also weighed in on Facebook.

“Once again Senator/Chairman Santarsiero has his jobs confused. The Democrat County Committee chair used his official position as a state senator to sponsor an event targeted at underage children that featured a drag queen performance and sexually explicit items that were handed out in ‘swag bags,’

“In addition to sponsoring the event the ‘Queer Prom,’ Bucks County’s State Senator/Democrat Party Chair has also obtained a $630,000 grant, our tax dollars, to continue to sexualize children, some as young as 14. This is not an acceptable use of tax dollars and certainly does not align with the values of this county,” the GOP said.

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